Granville T. Woods

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Granville T. Woods

• 1856 - 1910
• By Amanda Hickman

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At The Age of 10

• At the age of 10, Woods had to leave public
  education and work at a machine shop.

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1872
In 1872, at the age of sixteen, Woods left Ohio
and, in what can be best described as his
travel-and-study period, worked various jobs
around the country, augmenting the practical
knowledge gained from those positions with
readings at night. His first stop was at the Iron
Mountain Railroad in Missouri, where he worked as
a fireman and, later, an engineer. His interest
in electricity and its application to railroads
began there. In 1874, he moved to Springfield,
Illinois, to work in a rolling mill.
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WHO WAS HE MARRIED TO?

• Woods was married to Gabriella Woods.

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His most noted invention was a system for letting
the engineer of a train know how close his train
was to others.
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Granville T. Woods dubbed the Black Edison. He
invented the railroad telegraph.
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HIS FIRST INVENTION

• His first invention was for an improved steam
  boiler furnace, but later patents were mainly for
  electrical devices, such as his second invention,
  an improved telephone transmitter. The patent for
  his device combining the telephone and telegraph
  was bought by Alexander Graham Bell, and the
  payment freed Woods to devote himself to his own
  researches. One of his most important inventions
  was the "trolley" or grooved metal wheel, that
  allowed street cars (soon known as "trolleys") to
  collect electric power from overhead wires.

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CREDITS

• INVENTORS.ABOUT.COM
• WWW.SCIENCECONTROL.COM